The shrinking readership of U.S. newspapers may spell the end of an era when Americans looked to them as a source of information and news.
Newspaper Circulation Decline Accelerates
When the news that the Chicago Tribune may be debating whether or not to declare bankruptcy, (Business Week 12/7/08), it came as no surprise. Beginning in the 1990's evidence began to emerge that readership was decreasing. In the six months ending September 2008, the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) reported major drops in circulation. Its figures showed that 507 newspapers reporting, daily circulation slipped 4.6% and the Sunday editions dropped 4.8%. (Editor and Publisher, 10/28/08) Only the Wall Street which was flat and USA Today which was up a fraction of a point did not show a decline.
Circulation reported by ABC at other metropolitan newspapers show a similar pattern of decline:
- New York Times 3.5%.
- Washington Post 1.9%
- Los Angeles Times about 5%
- San Francisco Chronicle 7%
- San Jose Mercury News 1.9%
- Boston Globe 10.1%
- Baltimore Sun 5.9%
- Philadelphia Inquirer 11%
- Daily News (Philadelphia) 13.2%
- Arizona Republic 5.5%
- Indianapolis Star 3.3%
- Miami Herald 11.8%
- Orlando Sentinel (Florida) 3.3%
- St. Petersburg Times 6.8%
- Denver Post 6.5%
- Rocky Mountain News 6.6%
- Free Press (Detroit) 6.8%
- Detroit News 10%
- St. Louis Dispatch 9.1%
- Houston Chronicle 13.6%
- Atlanta Journal Constitution 13.5%
- New York Post 6.2%
- New York Daily News 7.1%
The McClatchy papers all lost readership including:
- Kansas City Star 2.3%
- Ft. Worth Star Telegram 3.7%
- Charlotte Observer 3.9%
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis 4.2%
Advance Newspapers were:
- Star Ledger (Newark, NJ) 10.4%
- Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 8.5%
- Oregonian (Portland) 8.4%
- Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 2.4%
Newspapers Future in America
As readers have migrated to the Internet and websites, it appears that traditional newspapers are a dying business. Sites like Craigslist.com and Monster.com has already taken as much as one-third of the average big-city daily's classified and career ads. Even with the daunting statistics, conventional newspapers still command a U.S. circulation of 53 million readers. On line newspaper readership has become increasingly popular. The Star (12/7/08) reports that in November 2008, it had 54 million Web viewers.
According to David Olive, "Rumors of newspapers' demise..." writing in The Star, newspapers will be reshaped in delivering the news:
- Exodus to the Web: Web-logs or blogs will gradually evolve into full-fledged news organizations. They will attract the best and brightest journalists who will be able to report up-to-the-minute news.
- Non-profit Ownership: Newspapers collectives, such as those already in Europe and Middle East, will be formed by journalists. An example is the St. Petersburg Times, owned by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
- Reinventing Newspapers: Newspapers need to rediscover a point of view, champion selected causes, and develop unsurpassed proficiency in niche topics using the internet rather than newsprint to cover local happenings.
For newspapers to remain viable in the 21st century, they will have to make the transition from print to the internet, learn to amplify it works, embellishing text with video, slide shows and links to related information.
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